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Models and simulations in climate change. Historical, epistemological, anthropological and political aspectsOuvrage par Dahan Dalmedico Amy Physicists regularly invoke universal laws, such as those of motion and electromagnetism, to explain events. Biological and medical scientists have no such laws. How then do they acquire a reliable body of knowledge about biological organisms and human disease? One way is by repeatedly returning to, manipulating, observing, interpreting, and reinterpreting certain subjects—such as flies, mice, worms, or microbes—or, as they are known in biology, “model systems.” Across the natural and social sciences, other disciplinary fields have developed canonical examples that have played a role comparable to that of biology’s model systems, serving not only as points of reference and illustrations of general principles or values but also as sites of continued investigation and reinterpretation. The essays in this collection assess the scope and function of model objects in domains as diverse as biology, geology, and history, attending to differences between fields as well as to epistemological commonalities. In: Science Without Laws: Model Systems, Cases, Exemplary Narratives. ISBN-10: 0822340682 URL: http://www.dukeupress.edu/Catalog/ViewProduct.php?productid=11618 |